On
July 11, 1964 while driving through Madison County, Georgia, Lemuel Penn,
a black United States Army Reserve officer, was killed by a shotgun blast
from a passing car. Penn had been on annual summer active duty at
Fort Benning and was returning to his home in Washington, D.C.

The driver of the car from which the blast
occurred signed a statement admitting his role and identifying two members
of the Klan -- Howard Sims and Cecil Myers -- as being the ones who actually
fired the shots that killed Penn. Sims and Myers were subsequently tried
in state superior court, but an all-white jury found them innocent. Federal
prosecutors subsequently charged Sims and Myers with violating Penn's civil
rights. A federal district court jury found them guilty, and the two served
about six years in federal prison.